I remember
by padfootfox
Summary: This story takes place after Episode 50 of the Anime and Saya has been sleeping… It is just a “one shot”…for now.
1. Chapter 1

This story takes place after Episode 50 of the Anime and Saya has been sleeping… It is just a "one shot"…for now.

I do not have any ownership of Blood Plus, or the characters. I do however own my own words so may everything good in this world help you… if you use them without my permission. :p

Part one

It was Sayas ears that were first to spark to life, this was before her eyes. Before her body moves, it is her ears that pick up the sounds of things beyond this sleeping place… Fingers softly flex, toes adjust.

The shades of toffee and amber in her eyes swirl about, as they begin to focus. _"Haji". _His name thick on her tongue, her mind is moving rapidly like a garden: rich with too many live things. The movement of her body is weak, but the lid slides without too much difficulty.

The air is cool and she can smell many things kicked up the hillside breeze. Thick chunks of her hair blow about her face and the scent of stale air is recreated for her nose. Her clothes are in similar shape. Thinned and stale, scraps of cloth flap in the wind, mimicking the movement of the blowing plants.

She can remember.

It was a small fear that she would wake and not remember… it was another smaller one that she would…_"Haji"._

Where will her family be? Her family, friends, nieces and Kai. They would have continued forward. But she, like this monument has stayed still and quiet. Her nieces will be grown. What did they know of her and her sister?

She worries about this, but _he_ would not have worried about such things.

Hajis mind does not work like theirs. A day or a decade made no difference to him. For him it was only a moment ago.

For a breath her mind is an echo of the past. The crumbling ceiling and walls of the Met. Haji's voice, his eyes… "_Haji_."

She sees the dusting of leaves on the ground, a lost checkered napkin. The remnants of an afternoon picnic perhaps.

She moves towards the upper-most steps and pausing her eyes catch a glimpse of color. The sound escaping her throat is clearly audible in the surrounding stillness. She moves forward and bending, her ivory fingers grasp at the end of a withered stem.

It has taken her a while to climb down the steps, but every step she takes makes the next easier.

When she reaches the bottom she waits awhile, she is almost sure that she will feel him behind her, long arms folding around her like a pair of praying hands.

There is only the cool wind, pushing against her neck. Her stomach makes the agonized sound of a dying animal.

She is lying comfortably on a bench. Stretching herself long, she is still and lost inside her head. She is waiting. In a pocket of her tattered dress, she has tucked the withered flower there. She lays her fingers over it, to feel the soft crinkle of the petals under the decayed cloth. Soon she will go and find her family. But not yet…

Her eyes are closed and she is concentrating on breathing evenly. If she doesn't wait, maybe it would mean she was wrong. Wrong about the flower…wrong about…

Something has alerted her senses, but it makes no sound. She is on her feet moving forward, bare feet over cool grass, body lithe and capable.

She can see him… He is close and she can _see_ him standing, quietly several paces away. His eyes are staring full at her, absorbing her. A flash of light, his Chiropteran wings glint in the twilight.

She moves forward, she is breathing in deeply, and reaching towards him she slides her hands up to capture his face in her hands. His head comes to meet her, and he rests his forehead against her own. Her body is putting her reality into sharp contrast with her memories. And she is trying to absorb everything. After a moment she pulls away enough to see his eyes and his hers. It lasts the span of a moment…before she reaches towards him to place her mouth softly, neatly over his. He is still as stone and does not move, allowing her to push against him.

His hand is on the back of her neck then, and with one leg he lowers her to the ground and returns her kiss. His hands are grip her shoulders and face almost desperately. She can feel the warm, aching feeling of his weight pushing down on her, the smell of him… and the taste.

They would talk later, there were still things she needed to tell him, and then… tomorrow. Tomorrow they would go and find her family…


	2. Chapter 2

I do not have any ownership of Blood Plus, or the characters. I do however own my own words so may everything good in this world help you… if you use them without my permission. :p

• thank you to Raven the Dark Angel

Part two

Hajis smile is small when he picks her off the ground, neatly as bending to gasp a fallen fruit. Her hand is in his when he takes her to a car and they drive.

While they drive he doesn't speak, but takes her to an apartment, she assumes is his. It is simple and clean not what you would call lived in. The view is expansive, and travels the nearly the length of the city. In the corner of the largest window he has placed a single chair. There are papers in stacks and scattered around the floor by the chair and still more propped on the windows ledge.

It is sparse but she finds that she feels calm here. The bathroom is also very bare. Clean and starkly white, with large soft towels piled on a bench next to the tub. She showers a long time, reveling in the feeling of the rough cloth moving the soap across her skin. She scrubs at her hair next, until the action of it causes her arms ache.

She is dressed in one of his button down shirts, which is waiting for her on the doors hook. It slips smoothly over her damp hair and reaches almost to her knees.

Her bare feet make no sound as she crosses the length of the room that is now swimming with the aroma of hot food. He has gone to get food; she feels a twinge of sadness realizing he had left without her knowing.

Haji has spread cartons of the steaming food, across a rug that lies in front of a new fire. She feels a heat rush across her chest at the sight of his leonine body folded up, facing her. Waiting for her. He is sitting in the corners lone chair, angled still the same so that he has to turn his head fractionally to look fully upon her. Absently she wonders why he doesn't move the chair to avoid this…

While she eats and while she finishes, he plays for her achingly sweet music. The sparseness of the furniture and gleaming wood floors create the perfect acoustics. She is surrounded by the music and it soaks into her skin, like she has starved for it. His eyes are soft and remain open and focused on her. The perfect ordinariness of his left hand contrasted sharply to the beauty of the music. While the music continues she reaches towards the cellos case, and pulls her sword free.

Saya fingers are dancing across the sheath. Fingertips travel the twisting leather and then the point above the swords channel where she would pierce her finger. Haji is watching her, silent and still.

The smallest of smiles pushing up the corner of his mouth.

It is hours later. She has fallen asleep on the soft rug, he has covered her in a blanket and sitting up she gathers the folds of warmth around her shoulders. Haji is no longer in the room and turning her head she recognizes him, standing on the small balcony off the kitchen. She can see his mouth moving and notes the small silver phone in his hand.

It is close to being tomorrow. Butterflies beat her from the inside at the thought.

She rises and moves to the chair he is now absent from. It was so close to dawn that the night sky was tinged with the barest hues of topaz. And all the city lights are sparking with fading brilliance. Propping her feet against the window she rests her chin on her knees. Her heart skips a beat.

In perfect alignment to the large window, the lone chair and Sayas eyes… was a perfect view of her resting place for the last 30 years.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not have any ownership of Blood Plus, or the characters. I do however own my own words so may everything good in this world help you… if you use them without my permission. :p

• authors note:

Thanks very much to everyone who has read my story and given feedback and encouragement.

• more thanks to:

Heavens Memoirs

9081

Simmie

Fruits0Basket0Case

• my appoligies for this part… a promise to myself was that what ever part I was working on would be finished in one sitting, so one sitting for every part. If I hadn't agreed to this… I would not be posting yet… ah well… ;p

Part three

Saya is overcome, she can feel it threatening to spill over all her edges and drown her.

While she slept, time had paused and the time before she went to sleep was only brief moments ago. For Haji time had passed without her… it's meaning almost mundane in its movement. Her heart was breaking as she rose to her feet and crossed the room to meet him has he entered off the balcony.

While his emotions, never seems to swing on much of any kind of arc, she _felt _the ripple of surprise as it trembled along his back. She felt it when she flung herself against him and sought his mouth. And she heard it when the small silver phone clattered to the ground.

It is morning and she dresses. Back in Hajis shirt and now a pair of Hajis pants that fit fairly well, except that she has to fold the waist band down twice, and the legs up several times so she can walk.

Haji's eyes were calm while he drove, and his voice soft when he spoke. He had called Kai last night and explained things… Haji doesn't bother to explain anything more and she can't find her voice to ask.

Saya blushed suddenly at the thought of what he would have arrived to see.

She is ringing her hands nervously, until her knuckles begin to ache from the contestant gripping. Humans' minds don't work like Hajis. Without her… time had progressed eagerly forward. Saya pushed the longer hair away from her face. She thinks about her position in this life. She could fall into such happiness with the old thoughts of father and her family. Her mind flips to the obviousness of herself with Haji… to fighting, the feelings that curl threw her body like smoke, when she holds her sword. That perfect order of decisiveness when her body and mind were solidified in the singular act of battle, _her mind pauses_… of killing.

When they arrive at the house, Saya tries to absorb everything. It was her home but different. The house was a memory of the one she knew. The paint was new, flowers spilled out of pots along the door. Her hand is hovering between the doorknob and the doorbell, when door flings open and her eyes are met with Kai.

Kai wraps her in a hug before she can think and his familiarness washes over her like bath in all the scents of home.

They are sitting the kitchen. Her, Haji, Kai and Ami. Her mind does not idle in fear or worry; it evaporated from her being as soon as she felt Kai's arms cover her...

Kai and Ami have been talking for the better part of an hour, volleying the conversation and roughly summing up the last 28 years of their marriage. Saya has been eating from the ample plates of food Ami prepared before joining the conversation. She is happy again. Kai is still Kai. Still himself no matter what the years have added to him. Saya regards this older more mature Kai. The large stokes of grey in his hair that compliment the lines around his eyes and mouth. He is still handsome, but now decidedly grown… a man. Ami was speaking rapidly at her now, disrupting the flow of the conversation to confront Says about when they would go shopping for some more appropriate clothes.

Saya found immense comfort in the ease in which Ami has always regarded the world. In her life, Saya had been protected and lied to both by people who loved and hated her. No such regard would ever come from Ami. Everything was laid-out plain and honest, without pretence. Saya felt such relief when noting Ami was unchanged in this regard. She was happy to know that Kai had made a life with her.

A thought is in her head and she dismisses it instantly… thought she can feel the space it occupied…

Sayas voice was small when she speaks to ask about her nieces. But both Kai and Ami were enigmatic when they speak of the girls. They spoke of them both in tones of love and pride. The girls were well and happy… Kai pauses here and seems about to tell her more when he lays a hand over hers for the span of two heartbeats. He is careful when telling her that the timing of her awaking could not have been better… he promises to speak more about her nieces but first there is a pressing matter.

She feels the slightest tension from Haji as Kai speaks. (Her mind reminds her that no one had seemed surprised the see Haji when they arrived…) With the death of Diva and with her Sleep, there had been not even a mummer off activity from any Chiropterans … nothing for more than 10 years.

Then reports were erupting from the cities urban areas. Police were finding bodies… Kais words are stolen by a sound from behind the house. Saya is up in an instant and moving towards the door.

It is nearly dark.

It was also cooler now, and the fog is rolling off the ocean in fat heaps to greet it. Sayas body is tensed and her eyes flicker towards Haji.

Hajis is watching her. The soft, ancient, grey irises of his eyes glinting an ominous edge.

There is a rapid movement of his hand, and then he is pressing the hilt of her sword against her palm. Her mind notes that Ami is still inside but Kai is lingering in the doorway, in his hands is a gun that is leveled at something he cannot see yet.

She breaths in the thick air and turning now, sees the glint of crimson eyes glowing softly from perhaps 50 feet away. Sayas blood is beginning to pump loudly in her ears, its very texture audible, distinct and specific. Her thumb is braced against the sharp point just above the swords hilt. These creatures have to be descended from Diva… her blood would still work… The thoughts that leave her head are flanked by doubt that she didn't have the time to consider. Her body hums with a twisted kind of pleasure when her blood courses from her finger and down through the swords channel.

The red eyes flash, and her blade is tilted. Catching in the light it casts off a glimmer that caught in the fog, and makes the air sparkle for a moment. Her body was in motion then, her toes springing lightly off the asphalt. With a grunt she pushes her sword forward in a fluid arc, toward its neck. The creature is fast and when she misses, it catches her by surprise. Instead the blade makes contact with a muscular shoulder, and fresh blood sprays across her shirt and hair. It moves away from her and pausing in the light, Saya notes that its features are decidedly more human than previous Chiropterans. Its seems to agree and opens its mouth in a horrid smile. Long teeth point threatenly out of a human mouth, that can't close for the sheer length of the teeth. It is less than a heartbeat and she is moving forward again, the sword is cutting threw meat and bone, cleaving the head onto the wet ground. More blood erupts from the void and makes soft pattering sounds as it rains upon the ground.

She stands over the Chiropteran, dead but not crystallized. But dead.

Something in the make-up of her had attracted these creatures. She had drawn them here, she was sure of that.  
She would be responsible for killing them. Chiropterans were in the world still and apparently not tied to either her or her sister… This new breed was not so durable, with only a slight mimicking of the full transformation she was familiar with. Part of her anguished at the realization she would be fighting… part of her did not.

Haji is still at her side and she can't stop herself from reaching for his hand, anymore that she can stop herself from telling him about the part of her that wishes to disappear back into her mind, back to sleep.

Haji responds with the gentlest pressure on her captured hand.


	4. Chapter 4

I do not have any ownership of Blood Plus, or the characters. I do however own my own words so may everything good in this world help you… if you use them without my permission. :p

• authors note:

Thanks again very, very much to everyone who has read my story and given feedback and encouragement. This is the first story I have written not read by my family or close friends and my first fan fiction.

Suggestions are always welcome and a massive edit will be done at the end, BUT not until then.

:p

Part four

Saya stands barefoot on the cool pink tiles that cover the floors and walls of the bathroom. This sink in running steaming hot water and one of the white towels Ami has given her is tinged a soft pink despite several rinses in the scalding water. She is reluctant to dirty another towel so she runs it across her face and neck again, before rubbing chunks of her hair with it as well. Her head was fending off the beginnings of a dull, thumping headache. She needed to feed. _It would have to wait until later, everyone was waiting on her…_

The house was quiet save the soft murmuring of voices. Kai, Ami and Haji are in the family room. She sits next to Haji, leaning her shoulder into him and tucking her feet under her.

Kai's face is masked as he leans forward to hand her a color photograph, framed in a heavy silver frame. The picture is of Kai and Ami and two young women. They are at the beach and the surf is surging behind their heads in a sea of fluffy white. Ami is looking at the girls, while the girls and Kai smile crazily at the camera. The girls were mirrored images of each other, save their eye color and the lengths of their hair. The one with darker eyes has cropped her hair in a blunt cut just under her chin and the lighter eyed one has hers long and soft nearly to her waist. While Kai and Ami have their arms around the girls, the sisters are held tightly in each other's arms. Ami's voice was light as she spoke, but also careful. "This was taken last year when the girls turned 29. We spent all day at the beach…" Saya continued to stare through the glass at the girls, not responding. She felt something inside of her twist as the understanding that the girls were close, that they loved each other. Every line of their bodies reflected that. The familiarity in their embrace, and their smiles. _29. _The girls had celebrated an uninterrupted birthday. Looking critically at the image she noted the softest of lines in the corners of the girls eyes. Saya looked up at Kai gauging his expression, waiting for the answers she already knew. "Saya, we didn't know what the girls we would be like. We raised them like… like I remembered it was having you here." Kai had his palms up opened towards her, like someone asking for penance. Saya felt her mind go still as Kai continued on, explaining the lives of the girls. They were living normal lives, aside from the weekly transfusions they needed. To everyone who knew them, this was simply something they had been born with. Something genetic, something that thinned the blood, something that had to be managed. For all intents and purposes they were normal girls. They celebrated normal birthdays. They aged. The girls had only ever been given transfusions to stay alive. They had never fed off live blood or a Chiropteran bonded to them. And while still beautiful their appearances was older, physically older than that of Saya. They were aging normally.

"We all saw what happened to the Chiropteran you killed tonight", Kai's voice pulled her back into the living room and on the couch. As Kai spoke again Saya saw that Ami had reached over and taken his hand, "When the girls were 10 and we started hearing the whispers of something in the city, of people going missing and of the way the bodies were found."

Haji's voice was soft behind her ear but she trembled slightly, realizing she was now leaning fully against his chest. "We wondered if they were the result of something left of Diva, I wondered if it wasn't one of the girls. Saya's eyes didn't miss Ami's hand tighten over Kai's as Haji spoke. "But I had Kai take samples of the girls blood when they were infants, they don't even react the way yours and Divas did." Saya was looking down as she spoke, "And mine was the same… I can kill these Chiropterans but they share no blood with me." Kai leaned forward in his seat and spoke her name. "Saya, what do we really know of your family history beyond Diva." Saya felt a pressure beginning to build at her temples. She knew nothing… Outside of the bloodline between her and Diva, she had no knowledge of any other of her kind. Before the understanding of who and what she was, all comprehension had stemmed from the knowledge that it all began with her and her sister. The possibility that… Saya's hands formed tight fists as she spoke, "What about these modern Chiropterans, you all seem familiar with them." Turning she risked a glance at Haji, whose eyes remained a soft gray. When he spoke it was with equal calm. "They appear to be bonded to nothing, since you have slept there have only been a dozen or so to surface. Our concern is over the number of bodies being found, they don't match up to what were seeing." Kai spoke again, his words rushed. "They don't appear to be able to achieve a full transformation. Of the handful we have killed, only one has been a problem." Saya stared him down, waiting for him to continue. When he didn't she felt her impatience burn against her eyes only fueling her headache. It was Haij's words that cut threw her anger, "Saya there are many things none of know, things we can't tell you." He paused a moment, "You need rest, it is late and I am sure that everyone else is tired as well." Saya's response was a heavy nod.

The car ride back to Haji's apartment was fuzzy but she was aware of Haji as he picked her up, cradling her against her chest. Her legs hung limply, swinging slightly with the movements of his steps up the stairs. When she felt his arms begin to lay her down on the bed, she arched her face towards his neck and hung onto his shoulders so that he followed her movement down on the bed, tucking himself against her side. She let her lips track the landscape of his shoulder pausing at his neck, she felt the slight tremble of his body as she moved more forcefully against him and slid her teeth into his skin…


End file.
